Micah's Musings

PyWeek 4 is fast approaching, for those who don’t know what that is, python programmers are given one week in which to build a computer game almost completely from scratch. Five themes are announced one week before the competition and competitors are allowed to vote on which they like best. At 00:00 UTC (GMT) time the final theme is announced and the competition begins. Entries are judged by innovation (how the theme was implemented in the game), fun, and production (video/audio quality, etc). The entire competition is held worldwide over the internet by its founder Richard Jones. You can see our previous entries on our team website.

One of the other pyweek entrants (also the winner of the second comp) got the brilliant idea of a practice week, and since I’d already started a project for that purpose I entered that. The practice week is basically a slower pyweek with no rules, just to let everyone get their game development mode running.

My practice project is a realtime strategy (RTS) where you basically command a group of rangers as they run around throughout the forest ambushing the enemy.

We found out yesterday that the usual host family for our church fellowship are sick, and so we hurriedly cleaned house in preparation to host it ourselves again. Then we headed out for a prearranged soccer match with some friends of my brother. Since my oldest brother is in town we had the seven boys as well as our little cousin and two volunteers from their team. The first half ended 1-1 and we hoped to come back strong. Unfortunately I pulled my left calf muscle early on and had to sit out for a few minutes before coming in to play injured. With about five minutes to play and the game tied at 5-5 we agreed to play golden goal, meaning next goal wins. They scored a while later on a looong shot that arced over Dad’s head and scored for the win. We all had a fun time and agreed that we should have a rematch sometime.

Then today I woke up to learn that my littlest sister was throwing up during the night and church is getting moved yet again. It sounds like we’re not going as people are still sore and in no mood for another drive. So as I’m typing this we’re getting a big sabbath brunch going with eggs, grits, sausage, and biscuits. Please pray that Sarah gets well soon and that everyone recovers from their injuries and soreness quickly. I for one am still limping up and down the stairs.

PyWeek is getting closer, and I think I’m ready for it. I packaged much of the functionality from our first two games into a single code library that will be eligible for use in the upcoming competition. I was planning on doing it solo this time but have since then heard from an old team member who might partner with me. I’m still waiting on a response from him.

I’ve also put in some more work on this site and Email Chaperone™ which is very much still a work in progress. I’ve added lots of AJAX functionality already and plan to make it a very dynamic website. This website now has comment features, archives, and a public meebo me window.

I hope and pray that y’all have a blessed sabbath.